Arizona’s natural environment is protected at the Hassayampa River Preserve. For most of its 100-mile course through the desert, the Hassayampa River flows only underground. But its crystal clear waters emerge, flowing above ground throughout the year. This habitat is home to some of the desert’s most spectacular wildlife.

Riparian areas nourish cottonwood-willow forests in the Sonoran Desert. An estimated 90% of these critical wet landscapes have been lost, damaged or degraded in the last century.This loss threatens at least 80% of Arizona wildlife, which depend upon riparian habitats for survival.

At this River Preserve, there are 280 species of birds living, nesting, or migrating along the riparian corridor. The zone-tailed hawk, the black hawk, and the Harris hawk may be seen here.Lucky birders may sight a Mississippi

Kite or the Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

Many species of lizards dart amidst the underbrush, including the rare Gilbert’s skink.Along trails you can see the tracks of animals drawn to the river’s edge: mule deer, javelina, raccoon, bobcat, ring-tailed cat, and mountain lion.

Spring-fed Palm Lake is a unique four-acre pond and marsh habitat. The pond attracts water birds such as the great blue heron, white-faced ibis, and pied-billed grebe.Around the lake, there is important nesting habitat for the endangered southwestern willow flycatcher.

CLOSED: Monday and Tuesday all year,and on Thanksgiving, the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve Day, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve Day and New Year’s Day. For information: (928) 684-2772.

Rio Salado Habitat Project, Bring Salt River back to life !

“The Rio Salado Habitat Restoration Area encompasses a five mile stretch of the Salt River just south of downtown Phoenix. This once deteriorated dumping site is now transformed into a lush riparian corridor for visitors to enjoy. The trail system brings you through various habitats – explore the demonstration wetland pond inhabited by wintering waterfowl, observe a jackrabbit in the mesquite bosque, walk under a canopy of cottonwood and willow trees, or enjoy the view of a waterfall from one of the lookouts. The four staging areas listed below provide access to the paved trails. Keep an eye on this page for the latest information. We also recommend calling the Ranger Office with any questions or concerns before heading out to the area.

Please note that dogs are not allowed. The primary goal of the project is to reestablish sensitive riparian habitat that disappeared from the Valley decades ago. Dozens of species of birds are an integral piece of this habitat. They have been shown to be especially sensitive to the presence of dogs.

When the River Flowed
The goal is to restore the native wetland and riparian (i.e. riverbank) habitats that were historically associated with the Salt River, which once flowed year-round through what is now Phoenix. The Hohokam, a farming people who lived in southern and central Arizona roughly from 1 A.D. to 1450, used the Salt River to turn the Salt and Gila river valleys into lush green farmland and thriving villages. The Hohokam farmers established an extensive canal network branching out from the river to irrigate a variety of crops.

The Pueblo Grande Museum in central Phoenix houses the remains of a Hohokam village and the museum’s website has extensive information on the Hohokam’s presence in the Valley.By the City of Phoenix

In the years after construction of Roosevelt Dam, a series of five dams – three on the Salt and two on the Verde – were built to help store water from the rivers’ 13,000-square-mile watersheds. Those dams created the various lakes – Canyon, Saguaro, etc. – where you go to fish or water-ski.

That’s why there’s no water in the Salt – It’s all damned up upstream. The water enters the SRP canal system at the Granite Reef Diversion Dam below the confluence of the Salt and Verde in the far East Valley. And that is why, even though you came here to get away from the snow, you should care how much snow falls in Arizona’s central and eastern mountains. That snowmelt keeps the lakes filled.

The watershed is not the Valley’s sole source of water. SRP and various cities pump groundwater and have the Central Arizona Canal, which was a huge undertaking,

Source: The Arizona Republic

Runoff: West’s weak link

Climate shift will strain state water source

Shaun McKinnon from The ArizonaRepublic reports:

Warmer temperatures in the West’s highest elevations could reduce winter runoff into the Colorado River by as much as 30 percent over the next 50 years, leaving more people to fight over less water. Even a subtle shift in climate could further weaken a river already overburdened by growing cities. This could lead to chronic water shortages, especially in Arizona, which suffers the most if the Colorado can’t meet the full demands of all seven states it serves. The new study findings suggest that a decade of higher temperatures and shrinking runoff seasons have contributed to the drought crippling the Colorado’s reservoirs.

“This climate disruption is already under way,” said Stephen Saunders, president of the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization, a Louisville, Colo., group that produced the study. There is clear evidence that climate change “will lead to more heat, less snow, less water when we need it, and possibly more drought,” he said.Climate change will attack the weak link in the West’s water supply: Runoff from mountain snow provides as much as 70 percent of the region’s water, including as much as two-thirds of the water used in Arizona’s largest cities.

Warmer weather can result in less snow, which directly reduces the water supply, or it can melt the snow too early. When that happens, reservoirs can’t store it all, and some of the runoff will be lost. “We’re getting warmer at exactly the time of year that snow needs to store water,” said Brad Johnson of Arizona Public Interest Research Group, which released the climate study in Phoenix. “It’s a real threat to our water supply that we should take seriously and address.”

The study, co-produced by U.S. Public Research Interest Group, urges stronger efforts by state and federal government to reduce so-called greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, which are produced by combustion of fossil fuels. Many scientists believe greenhouse gases and other man-made pollutants have accelerated global warming trends.
That part of the study is likely to renew debate among those who question whether global warming is a real trend and whether people are to blame. The issue is more basic, said Charlie Ester, water resource operations manager for Salt River Project in Phoenix. “I don’t think anybody’s going to deny that the Earth is warmer now than it was 20 or 30 years ago,” he said. “We can get lost in the debate about if it’s global warming caused by human effects or just natural climate change.” Either way, he said, the result is a drain on water resources.

Looking for solutions

To help assess the causes, Gov. Janet Napolitano created the Climate Change Advisory Group in February and asked its members to study greenhouse gas emissions in Arizona and find ideas to reduce those emissions. The group, meeting in September, includes representatives from power producers, the oil and gas industry, manufacturing and mining companies, the agriculture industry and an array of other interests.

California and New Mexico have established goals to reduce harmful pollutants significantly by 2050, while Oregon created a panel similar to Arizona’s. The connection between climate change and water supplies isn’t new. Several studies in recent years have warned that warmer temperatures in the high country mean less runoff into the reservoirs that serve growing urban areas. This study goes further in predicting shortages and droughts.

• In each of four river basins studied, the most recent five-year period was the hottest in 110 years. In the upper Colorado River basin, the period was an average of 2.1 degrees warmer.
• The periods with the largest increase in average temperatures were the winter months – January, February and March – the months when the most snow falls. A warmer winter is a signature pattern in global warming, the study says.
• Snowpack levels have been below average for 11 of the past 16 years in the ColoradoRiver basin. Runoff from snow hit a record low in 2002, the driest year in more than 500 years.

If those trends continue, the study predicted that the Colorado River will lose 24 percent of its annual snowpack from 2010 to 2039 and 30 percent of its annual snowpack from 2040 to 2069. In the driest years, the shortages on the Colorado would be severe and could further drain the river’s two giant storage reservoirs, Lake Powell and Lake Mead.

Managing the water

Snow provides a natural storage reservoir. It remains in the mountains well into the spring and then runs into rivers, which fill the reservoirs in the late spring and early summer. That gives water managers a chance to use water already stored in the reservoir and replace it with runoff.

If warmer winters melted the snow earlier, the runoff would fill reservoirs too soon and could force managers to release water before it was needed. That would result in less water available later in the year. Winter rain causes similar problems, filling the reservoir immediately instead of remaining in the mountains as snow.

“Some of it we’re already starting to see,” SRP’s Ester said. “We already have actual data that shows the peak melt period has advanced two to four weeks in the West. It’s especially pronounced in the Northwest. The melt starts a month earlier up there.”

SRP can handle a staggered snowmelt season better because its six reservoirs can hold nearly two years’ worth of runoff. Only in unusually wet years, like the past winter, is SRP forced to spill water from its reservoirs. What’s important, he said, is that water supplies could get tight and will challenge Westerners even more. That’s the point that other Arizona officials took from the study.

“It is important to conserve the water we have right now and take steps to ensure that climate change doesn’t disrupt our future supply,” said Ron Doba, utilities director for Flagstaff, which depends heavily on runoff for its water.